Electrical Engineer, User Terminals - TeraWave

Application close date:

At Blue Origin, we envision millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. We’re working to develop reusable, safe, and low-cost space vehicles and systems within a culture of safety, collaboration, and inclusion. Join our team of problem solvers as we add new chapters to the history of spaceflight!  

We are seeking a Senior Electrical Engineer to own user terminal board design.

This is a founding hire. The terminal architecture is still converging, and the PCB workstream is waiting on the engineer who will lead it. You would not be inheriting a design — you would be defining the schematic and layout approach for a product line that does not exist yet, working alongside RF, ASIC, and antenna engineers who are locking their own requirements in parallel. If you want a role where your first six months determine how the hardware gets built rather than how it is maintained, this is that role.

We are developing a family of terminals at different capability and cost points, so this is not a one-design job. You will carry a design from architecture through prototype bring-up, then apply what you learn to the next variant. Terminals are a mass-market product, not spacecraft hardware — build volume and unit cost are first-order design constraints, and we deliberately reach for terrestrial, COTS, and automotive-industry pricing rather than traditional aerospace pricing.

The hardest part of this problem is power and heat. mmWave phased array apertures draw substantial current across a large board area with dynamic load behavior, and the resulting power density means conventional board-level thermal approaches do not come for free. Delivering that current cleanly, and getting the heat out, will dominate the physical design and significantly influence overall terminal size and weight. This is a mixed-signal power integrity and thermal codesign problem as much as it is a high-speed digital problem.

You will sit at the boundary between the digital and RF worlds: high-speed data buses and clock distribution on one side, beamforming ICs and radiating elements on the other, with mmWave routing that cannot tolerate the noise the digital side produces. Our RF and antenna teams are in-house, so you will co-design that interface with them directly rather than across a supplier boundary.

• Own schematic capture and layout strategy for user terminal logic boards and aperture PCBAs, from architecture through release to fabrication.
• Lead multi-layer, high-density interconnect PCB design, maintaining strict isolation between high-speed digital, IF, and sensitive mmWave routing on shared stackups.
• Design power delivery networks capable of supplying and distributing high aggregate current across large-format boards, with the dynamic load behavior that beamforming produces.
• Partner with thermal and mechanical engineering on board-level thermal design and heat extraction; the terminal's thermal solution and its electrical design cannot be developed separately.
• Collaborate with in-house RF, antenna, and ASIC engineers to define and optimize the physical interface between PCBs and radiating elements, including packaged-antenna integration, front-end IC placement, and feed routing.
• Design and route high-speed data buses and reference clock distribution networks connecting modem, processing, and beamforming devices; manage insertion loss, matching, and phase and amplitude consistency across many parallel chains.
• Perform signal integrity, power integrity, crosstalk, and EMI simulation and analysis at board and system level.
• Contribute to component selection and architecture trades across processing, power, and front-end, treating availability, lead time, and cost as first-class criteria alongside performance.
• Drive design for manufacturability and test with PCB fabricators and assembly partners, including panel utilization, stackup feasibility, and yield at production volume.
• Lead physical bring-up, hardware debug, and functional lab characterization of prototype boards and integrated terminals.
• Support qualification and regulatory compliance testing for an intentional radiator.
• Help establish the electrical design practices, review standards, and documentation the terminal program will run on.

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or a related technical field.
• 7+ years of experience in complex hardware product development, such as telecom infrastructure, mmWave or 5G radio hardware, high-performance computing hardware, or comparable.
• Proficiency in EDA tools such as Altium Designer or Cadence Allegro, with direct hands-on experience in schematic capture and layout of high-speed, multi-layer, mixed-signal boards.
• Demonstrated experience designing robust power delivery networks for high-current, dynamically loaded systems.
• Strong working understanding of RF fundamentals — impedance matching, transmission line design, shielding, insertion loss — sufficient to co-design effectively with RF and antenna specialists.
• Hands-on experience with high-speed oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, and vector network analyzers for hardware characterization and debug.
• Track record of carrying hardware through the full lifecycle, from concept and schematic through integration, test, and production.
• Comfort operating with requirements that are still being defined, and the judgment to make design decisions that hold up when they firm.

• Master's degree in Electrical Engineering or a related technical field.
• mmWave hardware design experience, including Ka-band, Q/V-band, E-band, or 5G mmWave (FR2). This is more relevant to us than sub-6 GHz experience.
• Phased array experience, including beamforming IC integration, digital or hybrid beamforming architectures, packaged-antenna integration, tile or panel-based array construction, and array calibration.
• Direct experience co-designing PCB-to-radiator interfaces with antenna specialists, including rigid-flex and board-to-board RF interconnect.
• Experience with large-format or panel-limited PCB design, including working within fabricator panel size and process constraints.
• Board-level thermal design for high power density, including heat spreading, thermal interface selection, and codesign with mechanical and thermal engineering.
• Familiarity with satellite communication systems (LEO/GEO) or commercial high-capacity wireless infrastructure.
• Experience designing hardware around high-performance SoCs or FPGAs — AMD/Xilinx, Microchip, Altera/Intel, or high-speed Arm application processors — including DDR interfaces and SerDes.
• Track record of achieving regulatory compliance for intentional radiators (FCC Part 15/Part 25, CE, ETSI).
• Experience designing hardware for outdoor, weather-exposed installation, including sealing, ingress protection, and environmental qualification.
• Experience taking cost out of a hardware design across successive generations, or designing for high-volume consumer or automotive manufacturing.

Base Pay Range for:

Other site ranges may differ

Culture Statement

Don’t meet all desired requirements? Studies have shown that some people are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single desired qualification. At Blue Origin, we are dedicated to building an authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every desired qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

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Applicants for employment at Blue Origin must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (i.e. current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.

Background Check

• Required for all positions: Blue’s Standard Background Check
• Required for Certain Job Profiles:  Defense Biometric Identification System (DBIDS) background check if at any time the role requires one to be on a military installation
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Benefits

• Benefits include:  Medical, dental, vision, basic and supplemental life insurance, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability, 401(k) with a company match of up to 5%, and an Education Support Program.
• Stock Options for all regular employees (working at least 20 hours/week)
• Paid Time Off:  Up to four (4) weeks per year based on weekly scheduled hours, and up to 14 company-paid holidays.
• Dependent on role type and job level, employees may be eligible for benefits and bonuses based on the company's intent to reward individual contributions and enable them to share in the company's results, or other factors at the company's sole discretion. Bonus amounts and eligibility are not guaranteed and subject to change and cancellation. Please check with your recruiter for more details.

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Blue Origin is proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer and is committed to attracting, retaining, and developing a highly qualified and dedicated work force. Blue Origin hires and promotes people on the basis of their qualifications, performance, and abilities. We support the establishment and maintenance of a workplace that fosters trust, equality, and teamwork. We provide all qualified applicants for employment and employees with equal opportunities for hire, promotion, and other terms and conditions of employment, regardless of their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin/ethnicity, age, physical or mental disability, genetic factors, military/veteran status, or any other status or characteristic protected by federal, state, and/or local law. Blue Origin will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws, including the Washington Fair Chance Act, the California Fair Chance Act, the Los Angeles Fair Chance in Hiring Ordinance, and other applicable laws. For more information on “Know Your Rights,” please see here.

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